Check Out The Microsoft’s “Connected Fitting Room” For Clothing Stores

Imagine you are going for a clothing store fitting room, and you can get the different size, color of the garment you need with a simple touch. This is becoming real as a new project by Accenture, Avanade, and Microsoft has prototyped exactly this. This “Connected Fitting Room” project makes uses of RFID technology to track what you try on and use that data for other purposes such as recommendations, etc.

In the Connected Fitting Room, each garment in the store is labeled with an RFID tag–a low-power radio transmitter that identifies itself, like, “Hey, I’m a medium Ralph Lauren plaid shirt!” Then, inside the fitting room, there’s a an RFID reader. So when a shopper walks into the room, that clothing uploads to the network, and then it appears on a screen in the room. Want another size or color? Just tap the screen, and a clerk will receive the notification to his or her mobile device and fetch the garment without that awkward, shouting over the fitting room door maneuver.

It would be better if Microsoft combines this Connected fitting room with Kinect for Windows technology. Last year, a US based retailed used Kinect for Windows to find the perfectly fit jeans for its customers.

During Bloomingdale’s Denim Days, March 15 – 18, customers will be able to get their body mapped, and also become a Bodymetrics member. This free service enables customers to access an online account and order jeans based on their body shape.

“We’re very excited about bringing Bodymetrics to US shoppers,” explains Suran Goonatilake, CEO of Bodymetrics. “Once we 3D map a customer’s body, we classify their shape into three categories – emerald, sapphire and ruby. A Bodymetrics Stylist will then find jeans that exactly match the body shape of the customer from jean styles that Bloomingdale’s stocks.”

The process starts with a customer creating a Bodymetrics account. They are then directed to the Bodymetrics Pod, a secure, private space, where their body is scanned by 8 Kinect sensors arranged in a circle. Bodymetrics’ proprietary software produces a 3D map of the customer’s body, and then calculates the shape of the person, taking hundreds of measurements and contours into account. The body-mapping process takes less than 5 seconds.